12 July 3 - 9, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Long Time, No Eat One of the best burgers in North Texas is finally back, here’s how to get it. BY CHRIS WOLFGANG H as it really been over five years since the world shut down? Time is certainly a cruel mistress, and in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, you were excused if you wondered what day it was, how long since you’d left the house or if it was too early to start drinking (answer: no). We all have memories of how we adapted to a strange version of the new nor- mal. For Rich Vana at The Heritage Table in Frisco, the limits on gathering in public hit his restaurant hard, like many others. Near the end of 2020, Vana shut the doors on his dining room and turned the restaurant into a to-go sandwich and provisions shop, at which time a new creation was born: The Impractical Sandwich, so named because the detail the team put into this creation were impractical for most people to do at home. In addition to brown-bag lunches and an eclectic menu of sandwiches, the shop also sold meats, sauces, spreads and soups for takeout by the pint and pound. The Impractical Sandwich was the crutch Vana and his staff needed to stay afloat during some truly trying times. The concept shuttered in 2022 when Heritage Table itself reopened, albeit as a dinner-only establishment (brunch and lunch service have yet to return). Since reopening, it’s been ho-hum for Vana and his team; a James Beard nomination in 2024, plus a glowing review in these pages and reentry into our Top 100 Restaurants. You know, nothing big. So imagine our surprise when we saw the Impractical Sandwich was making a return this summer, starting with a double cheese- burger for the ages. No less of a burger au- thority than Jack Perkins of Maple & Motor shared a photo of the new burger last week, which Vana had brought by the northern Maple & Motor outpost for Perkins to try. “I’ve known Jack forever, and been to Maple & Motor a million times,” Vana told us. “I knew I had to bring him a burger to try out.” The photo Perkins shared on social me- dia showed a double-patty sandwich, along with a note that he “took down the whole thing.” It’s nice to see game recognize game, and we knew then what we would be doing the following Friday. Yes, a downside: for now, the Impractical Sandwich is only available Fridays at lunch, to-go. You can pre-order from their website along with a pickup time between 11:30 and 1:30, and your burger will be waiting for you when you arrive. You could also try drop- ping in with no pre-order, but expect to wait about 15 minutes for your order. Also, the number of sandwiches is limited each day while Heritage Table’s team gets a feel for the process. Be smart here: get your pre-or- der in and plan accordingly. When we popped in just a few minutes before our pickup time, it was a brief wait before Vana himself popped out with our order and we seized on a brief moment to say hello. And when he handed us the bag, the weight of it almost caused us to drop it. We cut short our chat with Vana rather hastily (sorry, chef!) so we could make our escape and dig into lunch. I’ve a friend who lives about five minutes away in Frisco, and for the price of a burger of their own, they let me eat in their kitchen much more quickly than if I had driven all the way home. In our hefty paper sack were two of the famed cheeseburgers ($14 each) and two or- ders of fries, held in their own smaller bags. The burger is impressive in its simplicity. The two 4-ounce patties of Ranch Hand Meat Company prime beef are seasoned, smashed and seared to perfection on a flat- top. There’s a flavorful, crunchy exterior, but still a perfect line of medium pink under- neath. Off-the-shelf cheese might work, but Vana is no off-the-shelf chef; his team makes their own American cheese with Rollertown Brewing’s Kolsch beer, then melts a slice onto each patty. The buns, based on the stel- lar milk and honey rolls available regularly at Heritage Table, are dressed simply: a dash of yellow mustard, house-cured pickle slices and a caramelized onion jam. We also ordered a side of fries ($4), which are exquisitely done. The fries are the perfect thickness for our preferences; not shoestring thin nor steak fry thick. If we had to guess, there’s either a light batter or some pre-boiling technique to give the potatoes a starchy exterior that crisps up nicely while remaining fluffy and light underneath. Fur- thering the attention to detail, both the burger and fries are half-wrapped, so noth- ing gets soggy while you travel home with your meal. Like Perkins the week before, we took down the whole burger without a touch of shame. The cheeseburger is simple enough, but the flavors and textures on hand sing in multi-part harmony, as if “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles were a sandwich. The fries want for nothing, although Heritage Table drops in packets of Heinz ketchup should you like to dip. Maybe our only sur- prise was that Vana and team hadn’t whipped up some elevated house-made ketchup to match everything else’s home- made slant? But those are the kind of pedantic points food writers make so the reader knows we’re not on the take. The fact is, the Im- practical Sandwich’s cheeseburger return is magnificent by any measure. The next burger Friday can’t get here quickly enough. The Heritage Table, 7110 Main Street, Frisco ▼ MICHELIN GIUDE GLUTTONY WITH A SIDE OF MICHELIN GOING ALL IN AT BIRRIERIA AND TAQUERIA CORTEZ. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS “B irrieria” is a hard one to roll off the tongue. It’s like a taqueria, but the specialty here is birria, which is slow-cooked meat that renders a flavorful broth (or consomme). It’s tasty in- deed, but the name is a bit tricky. Birrieria and Taqueria Cortez is in a pri- marily residential neighborhood in southeast Fort Worth. The restaurant has a stone facade with fire-engine-redaccents and picnic tables outside. When you walk in, the first thing that hits you is the easy, fun vibe. Colorful sarape- inspired tables dot the big dining room, and Mexico-inspired murals cover the walls. Mu- sic bounces overhead, and many margarita machines swirl in the back. This family-run restaurant started as a food truck just down the road (and is still there). The Cortez family moved into this cozy corner spot in 2021. Rogelio Cortez Jr. is the face and energy of the space; his par- ents, Rogelio Sr. and Patricia Cortez, origi- nally from Jalisco — the birthplace of birria — help in the kitchen, while their other four kids help in both the front and back of the house. The place is buzzing between lunch and dinner on a mild summer day. The dining room is immaculate, and the service is quick and friendly. Before starting this little birria kingdom, Rogelio Junior worked at McDonald’s for three years, where he says he learned about “kitchen processes, working fast and that everything has a place,” emphasizing the last part. Cutting his teeth at the fast-food empire paid off; everything runs efficiently, something not often seen at new restaurants with new restaurateurs. Beef birria is the only protein served here, and it’s in everything. Batches are cooked throughout the day. First, the meat is trimmed, then it roasts for eight hours, which renders the rich consomme, which is filtered and then cooked again. Rogelio says they go through two batches each weekday and five on the weekend. Making Michelin When it was announced that the Michelin guide was coming to Texas, we all wondered how a book founded on French dining would adapt to the cornerstones of the Texas culinary scene, which include fare from our neighbors from the south. It was a surprise when Birrieria and Taqueria Cor- tez was announced at the inaugural Mi- chelin ceremony in Houston last fall. Even the Cortezes were surprised. They didn’t go to the event because they missed the invita- tion. Rogelio only found out when his state Rep. Ramon Romero called to congratulate him. While they didn’t receive an elusive star in the guide (only one North Texas spot, Tatsu, earned that distinction), other restau- rants filled in the Bib Gourmand selections, recognizing high-quality food at a reason- able price. Then there are also “recom- mended” restaurants, which the anonymous inspectors determine to be impressive, but not star or Bib Gourmand worthy, where Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez landed a spot. They’re keeping company with some of North Texas’ most lauded restaurants, in- cluding Tei-An, Georgie and Mister Charles. Going All In Everything on the menu at Cortez is a varia- tion of birria, and nothing but birria. Nine Top Sellers are listed on the menu, including a Top Sampler, which is where you should start. It comes with an 8-inch pizza (layers of tortillas, cheese and birria), flautas, two quesatacos and consomme. Fully commit- ted, we added changas, a torta and a tostada, which were all less than $75. Diced onions and cilantro appear frequently, and salsa is ready on every table. Table space is at a pre- mium, as are rolls of paper towels. It’s hard to remember exactly what happened as we plowed through every dish, including a stellar pile of borracho beans (the underappreciated true mark of a good chef). The changas were lightly | CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Chris Wolfgang Heritage Table in Frisco has a new burger that needs to be on your radar.
